Hong Kong cage homes for hire: ‘poverty tourism’, or a way to show visitors unique side of city?
After social media outburst over cage-home beds at Sham Shui Po hostel and withdrawal of Airbnb listing, owner defends it as giving guests a different picture of Hong Kong and says cages celebrate the ingenuity of city’s poor
A Hong Kong hostel with dormitories that look like cage homes used by the city’s poor has been causing a stir. Wontonmeen, an arts hub offering budget accommodation, claims to give foreign travellers a taste of “the real Hong Kong” by letting caged sleeping bunks for HK$203 (US$26) a night in Sham Shui Po, the city’s poorest district.
“Even starving artists need a place to rest their heads,” reads the blurb on Wontonmeen’s website. “We like to think of Wontonmeen as the hub where Hong Kong’s creative scene starts its day; a unique, diverse living space in the heart of Sham Shui Po.”
The hostel’s owner, local designer Patricia Choi, expressed anger over a report this week on “coffin homes” by The Guardian newspaper, which called Wontonmeen “insensitive” and said it “speaks to the complacency that has developed” towards the city’s problems.
Amid the ensuing furore on social media, one of the hostel’s Airbnb listings has been withdrawn, although a second Airbnb listing and another on Booking.com are still active.